Archive for the ‘adolescents’ Category

Unless I Say Yes—Sexual Choices of Young Women and Men

by Staff Contributor Camry Haskins

On Thursday, February 5, the Global Women’s Institute (GWI) hosted the 12th anniversary of the Bokamoso youth’s residency at GW. As part of their visit, the South African youth drama and music program took part in an interactive workshop with the GW community. It was a cross-cultural workshop centered on sexual choices in adolescence. The event began with a series of performances based on issues faced by South African youths. The four performances were entitled: “Boy’ Rap”, “Step Around”, “It Won’t Happen to You”, and “Take Off the Mask”. The performances covered topics that included: sex in relationships, female disempowerment, and family struggles.

After the performances, the Bokamoso youths formed a semi-circle on the stage and began an open dialogue with the audience. Questions regarding differences between cultures started the discussion, but it quickly adapted to statements of similarity. The Bokamoso visitors were surprised that they shared similar situations with individuals around the world. The general consensus was a realization of how similar all of our stories are.

A Path Appears: Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

by Staff Contributor Camry Haskins

The second installment of “A Path Appears” focused on cycles of poverty in West Virginia, Haiti, and Colombia. The episode started out in Appalachia West Virginia, where Jennifer Garner served Nicholas Kristof’s tour guide in her home state. They meet poor women who are struggling to provide for their children, because of the burdens preventing people from overcoming poverty. WIC, a program for poor mothers does not cover many expensive purchases, such as diapers. Young mothers are often struggling to afford the necessities while also coming to terms with their inability to get hired. The insecurities and vulnerabilities they face as high school dropouts becomes a seemingly insurmountable wall to overcome.

Next, Kristof travels to Port-au-Prince Haiti with Alfre Woodard. Haiti is the poorest country in the hemisphere with a history of messy aid including, short term projects that never created solutions. In such a poor country, families are left with few options when they have too many mouths to feed. Many children end up in the Restavek system (comes from French words that mean stay with). Families in rural areas with too many children will send small children, usually daughters, to live with someone in the city and essentially work as a slave. The Restavek Freedom Foundation was created in order to rescue children out of those situations. Kristof and Woodard followed the process of one girl being successfully removed from her abusive Restavek family. In an effort to move away from the Restavek system, the importance of education is continuously stressed as the main mechanism for a better life.

Kristof’s final stop is in Cartegena, Colombia, where he travels with Eva Longoria where teenage pregnancy appears to be an inescapable issue. The area is plagued by poor sanitation, which cause respiratory problems. Ill health and unplanned pregnancies are two factors that prevent growth within the population. Many girls drop out of school because of the high teen pregnancy rates. Kristof and Longoria learn about Colombia’s teen pregnancy problems from a woman named Catalina. Founder of the Fundación Juan Felipe Gomez Escobar (Juanfe), Catalina mourned her own loss of a child by creating a center that helps pregnant teen women and those who have already had children. The center focuses on education for the reduction of infant mortality, it trains the teen mothers to earn their own income in a short period of time, and teaches them the tools to keep away from the many gangs and violence, which are high in the area.

This episode leaves the viewer with a some closing thoughts. Poverty and education is a zero-sum game; if you don’t invest in the front-end then you must invest in the back-end. More money should be focused on programs for poor parents, so that their children can begin life closer to the starting gate. When education and other life programs are not invested in, more money ends up funneled into prison and other programs that deal with high school dropouts.

“The road to overcome poverty is partly about something as non-numerical as hope”- Nicholas Kristof

Don’t miss the final episode of A Path Appears, airing at 10pm on PBS Monday, February 9.

Founded in 2002, My Life My Choice is an organization fighting against the commercial sexual exploitation of young people in the greater Boston area. Led and fueled by survivors, My Life My Choice’s unique model empowers youth through engagement with a powerful community of advocates who have experienced commercial sexual exploitation personally. Envisioning a world free from the buying and selling of children, the organization works in four main survivor-led arenas:

Survivor mentorship

Prevention education

Professional training for service providers

Advocacy and leadership

In the greater Boston area alone, MLMC has trained 7000+ youth providers, mentored over 300 girls, and trained more than 7000 youth service providers. MLMC’s services for youth are inclusive, comprehensive and gender inclusive as of 2014. Last year, they launched a pilot mentorship program for 12-18 year old boys and transgender youth. MLMC encourages young survivors to stay engaged with the organization through the MLMC Leadership Corps, fueling the next generation of powerful survivor advocates. The organization has been recognized by the US Department of Justice as a national model for sex trafficking prevention.

My Life My Choice is a member of the Justice Resource Institute and partners closely with other local and national change-makers including the SEEN Coalition (Support to End Exploitation Now) and the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Anti Trafficking Taskforce. In 2011, MLMC was a key voice in the drafting of Massachusetts anti-trafficking legislation that assured that exploited minors specialized survives rather than jail time.

“Crossing Lines” is about an Indian American woman’s struggle to stay connected to India after the loss of her father. Like most second-generation ethnic Americans, Indira Somani has struggled with identity issues, since her parents migrated to the U.S. in the 1960s. Being born and brought up in the U.S. Indira led an American life, but at home, her world was Indian because of her father’s immense love for India and Indian culture. This film takes you on a journey to India, where Indira visits her father’s extended family for the first time after his death. The film explores how Indira tries to stay connected to Indian culture and her extended family, despite the loss of her father. It is the story of how one daughter pays tribute to her father in all that he’s taught her about India, Indian culture and family.

“Watch this documentary and give your kid a hug, especially if she is a girl.”Ashfaque Swapan, India-West

When: March 10 | 02:30pm - 04:30pmWho: The International Center For Research on WomenWhere: Hardin Room, Church Center United Nations (CCUN),
777 United Nations Plaza
New York, NY

The 58th session of the Commission on the Status of Women priority theme focuses on the “Challenges and achievements in the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals for women and girls.” Drawing from recent research under this theme, ICRW and its partners will bring attention to the gaps within the MDGs that failed to adequately address the needs and rights of adolescent girls, even under the banner of MDG 3, on gender equality.

The panel discussion will reflect on progress against the only mention of girls in the MDGs; draw attention to key areas of need for the 250 million adolescent girls living in poverty today; question the dearth of progressive policymaking in this space and pose concrete recommendations for the future, post-2015 framework.

GW senior and former America’s Miss District of Columbia, Sarah Hillware will give a talk as a part of TEDx UN Plaza on September 16th. Her presentation entitled, “Harnessing the Power of Girls,” can be streamed live starting at 9am from here. UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon is expected to speak at the event, among other innovators, philanthropists, and scholars. Hillware is the founder of Girls Health Ed, an organization that promotes and educates young students on healthcare and nutrition in underserved communities in D.C.

On June 17 the Wilson Center hosted an event titled “Vision, Innovation, and Action to Address Child Marriage.” The event featured two panels and closing remarks. Many policy-level and cultural points and perspectives were raised during the forum.

The first group of panelists (listed below) focused on the bigger picture of child marriage, speaking of broader policy initiatives to address child marriage, whereas the second panel focused on specific interventions.

Koppell identified three main components of a successful strategy to address child marriage:

1) Need to build partnerships with community, religious, and business leaders given that child marriage is a complex phenomenon, requiring commitment from a broad range of stakeholders as well as deep resolve to act upon convictions.

3) Need to develop a strategy of “integration” to ensure that child marriage is covered in various aspects of international development efforts, from education to health, from economic to political empowerment. (more…)

The heading of this blog post is taken from the title of an autobiography of Nujood Ali from Yemen, who was Glamour magazine’s Woman of the Year in 2008. Imagining a married, let alone divorced ten year old, is hard in most countries, yet still child marriage is a reality in much of the world.

Child marriage has received heightened attention in recent years (ICRW 2011) but continues to be a problem in Yemen and worldwide. A study on early marriage carried out in 2008 by the Gender Development Research and Studies Centre at Sana’a University in Yemen found that 52.1 percent of girls are under 18 when they were married, compared with 6.7 percent of boys. As a 2011 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report points out, this phenomenon is not unique to Yemen. Worldwide, more than 51 million girls between the ages of 15 and 19 are married. A 2012 report from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) provides evidence that nearly one in every four girls aged 15 to 19 years in the developing world (excluding China) is currently married or in union.

Child marriage brings with it many problems but the most acute is perhaps childbearing. During pregnancy, a young mother competes with her baby for essential nutrients. Malnutrition is a common problem in Yemen and child pregnancy exacerbates the situation, ultimately depriving both the mother and child. Pregnancy is the leading cause of death worldwide for women ages 15 to 19, according to the International Centre for Research on Women (ICRW).

Caitlin Masters, M.A. student in the Elliott School of International Affairs at the George Washington University, presented her findings from a social science literature review in fall 2012 for a seminar on Global Gender Policy taught by Professor Barbara Miller. She summarizes key findings from her paper in a presentation on YouTube.

Pennies for Peace is a service-learning program that focuses on education. The organization provides essential tools to individuals who wish to initiate their own education projects in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The organization provides K-12 curriculum along with other learning tools to campaigners who then build learning initiates that focus on community-based education of children, particularly girls, in rural areas. Pennies for Peace guides individuals through the implementation process, helping to establish project timelines, manage philanthropic outreach, and incorporate cultural education into curriculum. Pennies for Peace hopes to achieve 5th grade level education for these children, while at the same time supporting students of developed countries to realize their potential as philanthropists.

Do you get it?

The Global Gender Update is our weekly newsletter that will keep you informed about events, resources, and opportunities in the Washington, DC area and beyond. The GGP offers this service as part of its mission to promote awareness of global gender issues and policies. We are always trying to expand our coverage, so if you have information to share, please send it to: ggpnews@gmail.com